Women's hockey falls to Lady Jeffs

Author: Alex Lovett-Woodsum

The seventh-ranked Middlebury women's hockey team was on the road again this weekend, dropping its first game on Saturday, Feb. 14 with a tough 5-0 loss to the fifth-ranked Amherst College team. The Lady Jeffs' wins this weekend as well as their unblemished NESCAC record have secured them the top seed and hosting rights in the upcoming NESCAC tournament for the first time in their program's history.

Amherst's first goal of the game came with 12 minutes remaining in the first period, when a scramble in front of the net led to a goal by Stephanie Clegg with assists from Anna MacLean and Molly Malloy.

Middlebury held off the Lady Jeffs well into the second period until Amherst's Tarasai Karega fed the puck to Courtney Hanlon for her 11th goal of the season, making her the highest scorer on the team. Amherst headed into the third period with a 2-0 lead and quickly put the puck in the net with a power-play goal by Kate Dennett with assists from Julia Koch and Lindsay Harrington. This assist gave Harrington an impressive 92 points in her career and 17 on the season.

Five minutes later, Middlebury's Annemarie Cellino '09 almost broke away from the Amherst defense, but heavy pressure prevented her from getting off a good shot and Amherst goalie Krystyn Elek managed to preserve the shutout.

Amherst added another goal with 3:08 left in the third period when Middlebury goaltender Alexi Bloom '11 made a save on a wraparound but was unable to stop the rebound, which was put in by Kate Dennett for the second power-play goal of the game.

The Lady Jeffs scored one more goal with 35 seconds remaining to earn the decisive 5-0 win over Middlebury.

"Amherst didn't outshoot us by much, we just had trouble finishing and they got lucky a few times," said Lani Wright '10. "The score didn't completely reflect the level of play by both teams. Amherst is really good, but we definitely still have a chance to take this team in the NESCAC tournament."

Middlebury recovered nicely on Sunday with a resounding 7-1 win over Connecticut College, who is currently in seventh place in the NESCAC standings. Middlebury took a 1-0 lead with a goal from Erika Nakamura '09 at 8:58 in the first period and the Panthers never looked back.

They added two more goals in the opening 4:05 of the second period with a pair of goals by Julia Ireland '11 and Anna McNally '11 to go up 3-0. Ashleigh Kowtoniuk scored the lone Connecticut College goal shortly after with a breakaway to make it 3-1. McNally then scored two more, giving her a second period hat-trick and giving the Panthers a 5-1 lead after two periods.

Andrea Buono '11 and Heather McCormack '10 added two more goals in the third period to make it a 7-1 final.

Other notable performances came from Nora Bergman '11, who tallied two assists in the win, and Grace Waters '12, who had three assists on the afternoon.

Wright had 21 saves to aid the team in the victory, while Connecticut keeper Lauren Mellen was bombarded with 44 shots and made 37 saves.

Middlebury hopes to win its two remaining regular season games against Wesleyan and Hamilton this weekend in order to secure a top seed in the NESCAC tournament.